Backfire! (1962) User Reviews

"I hope you sent him about his business"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 7/10 · 31 August 2019]

A cosmetic business is in financial trouble so one of the directors, Mitchell Logan, decides to arrange for the factory to be burned down in order to collect the insurance money. Everything appears to be going well but a cleaning lady anxious not to work on the day of her daughter's wedding and an expensive fur coat lead to the plan backfiring. This is a solid entry in the Merton Park Studios roster of Edgar Wallace movies. It is logical from scene to scene and unhindered by any side plots. Definitely one of the better films in the series.

It has good acting all round. I particularly liked Alfred Burke as the cynical Logan, Madeleine Christie as the garrulous charwoman Mrs Chenko and John Cazabon as the amoral arsonist Willy Kyser who revels in his skills a bit too much. These Edgar Wallace films were all low budget but the best ones like 'Backfire!' make for good entertainment. Perhaps a little slow for modern tastes but I enjoyed the film a good deal.

So predictable but fun to watch the bad guy engulfed by his own stupidity.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 2 September 2023]

An enjoyable entry in the Edgar Wallace series of British B crime dramas, here watching Alfred Burke plot arson for the factory that's losing money, earlier having suggested this action to the desperate boss (Oliver Johnston) who instantly rejects the idea. Obviously Johnston is going to remember Burke's suggestion even though he blames it as an accident on cleaning lady Madeleine Christie.

The investigation is filled with suspicions with the investigators looking on with jaded thoughts as Burke (married to the boss's daughter, Zena Marshall) invents a believable cause. This gives him protection at first, but watching the details of the investigator's report slowly leads to a trap. Quickly established for plot and speedily resolved (with good performances), this is one of the best of the series.

Low budget, high entertainment.

[robin-moss2 · 4 May 2013]

The 1962 film Backfire - there have been several with this title - is a cheaply made British B feature adapted from a story by Edgar Wallace.

A cosmetic company is trading at a loss and has severe cash flow problems. One of the partners, Mitchell Logan, suggests starting a fire and claiming the insurance money but the company's founder disagrees. Logan goes ahead anyway and bit by bit things go wrong, forcing Logan to become ever more criminal. The core narrative is unoriginal but the the film is so tightly edited that the audience's attention never wavers.

The film's main interest today lies in presenting two small-time actors who are now remembered because of one famous role. Zena Marshall who was exploited by a very caddish James Bond in Doctor No here plays Logan's wife and does so adequately but with no hint of the sexiness she brought to her role in Doctor No. Alfred Burke who was soon to become a household name playing Frank Marker in the television series The Public Eye here plays Mitchell Logan and very persuasively makes him sinister and unpleasant and almost the opposite of Frank Marker.

As was the case with all the Edgar Wallace series, the film is well photographed and edited.